Surgical band and locking member systems position cables and locking implants around bones to allow for healing. One common form of a locking implant is a crimp system. These systems are used to crush the cable into engagement with the tissue to retain the cable at a desired position. However, current designs of cable and crimp systems, particularly for surgical use, have significant drawbacks. For example, a tension, which is too low or too high may lead to improper healing or poor medical results.
Also, in many prior art cable and crimp systems there is the possibility for slippage of the cable in the crimp, which can lead to delayed healing. The loosening of the cable, e.g. in bone fracture fixation, can also lead to delayed healing, pain or even to a failure to heal. Also, many prior art crimps cannot be easily locked at a desired tension, and often the desired tension can not be maintained when using a cable loop or winding as there is an inevitable drop in tension when the pliers are removed. Thus, a surgeon typically has to “over shoot” the desired tension, guessing how much of that tension will be lost after the crimping has been completed and the pliers removed, thus significantly increasing the possibility for tensioning errors.
In addition, many prior art crimps are bulky and may cause adverse tensioning in the surrounding tissues, which may result in a negative effect on tissue healing. Another drawback of many prior art cable and crimp systems is that they are made of metal, such as stainless steel. Such extremely stiff materials are mechanically incompatible with bone tissue and therefore, may cause osteolysis below the material, which may lead to implant migration.
Therefore, it is desirable to use less stiff band and locking member systems, thereby preventing osteolysis and implant migration. It may also be desirable to use bands and locking member systems where band slippage in relation to the locking member(s) is not possible. Finally, it may be desirable to use bioabsorbable band and locking member systems, so that the implant will absorb after healing of the bone fracture or osteotomy.